Greater London Employment Forum Wednesday 18 November 2009 At 15.00 approx (or on the rising of the sides) London Councils’ 59½ Southwark Street London SE1 OAL

Employers’ Side: Conference Suite, First Floor 14.00 Union Side: Room 3, First Floor 14.00 Contact Officer: Ana Gradiska Telephone: 020 7934 9702 Email: ana.gradiska@londoncouncils.gov.uk

Agenda item

1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2 ELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR FOR 2009/10 The constitution provides that the positions of Chair and Vice-Chair should alternate between the two sides on an annual basis. This year it is the turn of the Employers’ Side to provide the Chair

3 CONFIRMATION OF GLEF MEMBERSHIP 2009/10 Attached

4 MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 19 May 2009 Attached

5 MATTERS ARISING To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting

6 APPRENTICESHIPS IN LONDON LOCAL GOVERNMENT A presentation from Rob Whiteman, Chief Executive London Borough of Barking and Dagenham on his authority’s approach to apprenticeships and an overview of the issues for London local government

7 UPDATE ON SINGLE STATUS To share information on the latest position in London

8 DATE OF NEXT MEETING Wednesday 21 July 2010 at 3.00 (side meetings at 2.00) – Note that the GLPC is meeting on 3 March 2010

## GREATER LONDON EMPLOYMENT FORUM

### MEMBERSHIP 2009/10

#### Employers’ Side

| Borough | Rep | Party | |-------------------------------|-------------------|-------| | Barking & Dagenham | Graham Bramley | Lab | | Barnet | Mike Freer | Con | | Bexley | Colin Tandy | Con | | Brent | Gavin Sneddon | LD | | Bromley | Tony Owen | Con | | Camden | Flick Rea | LD | | Croydon | Sara Bashford | Con | | Ealing | Ian Potts | Con | | Enfield | Dogan Delman | Con | | Greenwich | Peter Brooks | Lab | | Hackney | Karen Alcock | Lab | | Hammersmith & Fulham | Alex Karmel | Con | | Haringey | Bob Harris | Lab | | Harrow | Paul Osborn | Con | | Havering | Eric Munday | Con | | Hillingdon | Scott Seaman-Digby| Con | | Hounslow | Peter Thompson | Con | | Islington | John Gilbert | LD | | Kensington & Chelsea | Mark Daley | Con | | Kingston upon Thames | Ian Reid | LD | | Lambeth | Jackie Meldrum | Lab | | Lewisham | Helen Klier | Lab | | Merton | Samantha George | Con | | Newham | Christine Bowden | Lab | | Redbridge | Suzanne Nolan | Con | | Richmond upon Thames | Stephen Knight | LD | | Southwark | Lorraine Zuleta | LD | | Sutton | John Drage | LD | | Tower Hamlets | Oliur Rahman | Lab | | Waltham Forest | Peter Barnett | Lab | | Wandsworth | Maurice Heaster | Con | | Westminster | Angela Harvey | Con | | City of London | | |

### Union Side

#### Unison

- Rita Ash
- April Ashley
- Margaret Back
- Brian Blake
- Louise Couling
- Jane Doolan
- Vicky Easton
- Sean Fox
- Sonya Howard
- Anna Jackson
- Lara Johnson
- Glenn Kelly
- Jackie Lewis
- Maxine Lynch
- Sue Plain
- Rosemary Plummer
- Helen Steel
- One vacancy

#### Unite

- Ian Burgess
- Esther Rey
- Kevin Simmons
- Paul Travers
- Rachel Young
- One vacancy

#### GMB

- Jackie Nield
- Dave Powell
- Ted Purcell
- Tony Smith
- Eileen Theaker
- Vaughan West
- Anne Price
- One vacancy GREATER LONDON EMPLOYMENT FORUM – JOINT MEETING

Minutes of the meeting of the Greater London Forum held on 19 May 2009

ATTENDANCE

Employers Cllr Colin Tandy Bexley Cllr Tony Owen Bromley Cllr Flick Rea Camden Cllr Sara Bashford Croydon Cllr Martin Prescott Enfield Cllr Peter Brooks Greenwich Cllr Alex Karmel Hammersmith and Fulham Cllr Paul Osborn Harrow Cllr Eric Munday Havering Cllr Gerald McGregor Hounslow Cllr Helen Klier Lewisham Cllr Christine Bowden Newham Cllr Thomas Chan Redbridge Cllr Lorraine Zuleta Southwark Cllr Maurice Heaster Wandsworth Cllr Angela Harvey Westminster

Union side Vicky Easton Unison Margaret Back Unison Brian Blake Unison Louise Couling Unison Sean Fox Unison Sonya Howard Unison Glenn Kelly Unison Jackie Lewis Unison Sue Plain (Chair) Unison Ian Burgess Unite Paul Travers Unite Lisa Mannion Unite Kevin Simmons Unite Jackie Nield GMB Tony Smith GMB Vaughan West GMB

London Councils officers were in attendance, plus Carol Lewis (Unison)

The Union Side announced the death of Malcolm Campbell. Malcolm had sat on GLEF/GLPC since 2000. Employers and unions paid tribute to Malcolm, and held a minutes’ silence.

1. Apologies

Apologies were received from Cllr Gavin Sneddon (Brent), Cllr Dogan Delman (Enfield), Cllr Jackie Meldrum (Lambeth), Peter Thompson (Hounslow), Cllr Tim Coleridge (K&C), Cllr Ian Reid (Kingston), Cllr Stephen Knight (Richmond), Cllr John Drage (Sutton), Rita Ash (Unison), April Ashley (Unison), Jane Doolan (Unison), David Eggmore (Unison), Justin Bowden (GMB), Ted Purcell (GMB), Eileen Theaker (GMB) and Vaughan West (GMB).

2. Minutes from the last meeting

The minutes were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting that took place on 17 March 2009.

3. Matters arising

*Equalities issues:* The joint secretaries had met to discuss good practice on equalities monitoring on HR issues. Both sides agreed that they wanted to find good working models within London boroughs to share more widely.

*Apprenticeships:* The unions announced that they had put forward a nominee for the regional local government working group. They would be looking for certain outcomes from the group, such as the sharing of good practice on employment/pay arrangements and the collection of data on how many apprenticeships gained permanent employment on the completion of their apprenticeship.

*London Living Wage LLW:* The Employers’ Secretary had contacted the GLA about this issue, and was told that the new LLW rate and accompanying guidance would be issued in two weeks’ time. However, the GLA would not be issuing specific legal advice on the LLW; rather, legal issues would be covered in the general guidance.

4. Update on Single Status

The Union Side noted the general progress across London, but it was still awaiting an offer from LB Redbridge - the last remaining borough to make a single status offer.

Thomas Chan, the LB Redbridge representative, said that a report would go to the LB Redbridge Cabinet meeting in June. It was hoped that an offer would be made shortly afterwards.

5. National Pay Negotiations

The Union Side said that it understood that local authorities had on average budgeted for about 2% pay increases in 2009/10. In the light of this, it felt that the employers’ offer of 0.5% was unreasonable. The offer would also cause huge disparities in the rate of increase with teachers who would get 2.3% as part of their three-year deal. In many cases pay for senior managers would increase by significantly more than the NJC offer. The disparity was compounded by the fact that many boroughs had significantly increased members’ allowances. The unions had heard that the London employers had been particularly resistant to a more generous offer being made. The Employers’ Side said that the budget provision represented careful planning for an outcome outside the control of individual authorities. In many cases boroughs had had to re-adjust financial priorities in the light of rapidly changing economic circumstances. It was estimated that London local authorities would see a reduction in interest on investments of about £400 million during 2009/10 compared to what they had anticipated earlier in the budget planning process. Increments would use up about 1% of any budget provision and budgets had been set before the 0.3% increase arising from arbitration on the 2008/9 pay award. Any increases in pay would lead to cuts in jobs and services at a time when all the indications were that the longer term financial position of local government would worsen.

The Chair of The Employers’ Side indicated that London authorities clearly had a mixture of views, as would be the case in any region. The LGE consultation exercise had shown that London was not significantly different from any other region in the views that had been expressed.

6. Date of next meeting

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, 18 November 2009 at 3.00. Side meetings will be at 2.00